Missing Demidods
by T3am.Nic0
Summary: Nico picked himself off the floor of the Hades cabin and wiped away his tears for the second time that day. It wouldn't do to have his best friend see him cry. He headed for cabin One only to find it void of all signs of life. There were cobwebs netting around the giant statue of Zeus, Jason's father, and dust lining the windows and doors.
1. Chapter 1

My Dearest Nico,

I am about to bathe in the River Lethe for the second time in my life and feel that I should explain my decision to choose rebirth to you. I don't want to sit in elysium with the memories of my past life and all the suffering you and I experienced together and yet feel that I do not deserve to be here because I still abandoned you. I don't want to remember that I dropped my little brother in a heartbeat for the chance at immortality.

I know I haven't been anything of a big sister to you and you deserve so much better than I ever was but I love you Nico and I cannot imagine a life without you. Which is why my only regret for this new life is that you will not be there.

Nico, I know you have been searching for me and trying to find a way to bring me back but even if you could I would not belong there anymore. Please stop and live Nico, think of this as my last request for you.

All my love always,

Bianca.

P.S. By the time you read this I will have already started my new life and won't remember you so don't try to stop me

Nico read the letter again. He couldn't believe it, Bianca was choosing rebirth. She was choosing to leave him, again. He scrunched up the sheet of paper and threw it into the bin at the other end of his cabin. It doesn't matter that she decided to be reborn, she abandoned him anyway and he wouldn't be able to see her again even if she was still alive. But of course it did matter and Nico's tears betrayed him.

He cried for hours, just lying on his bunk and letting silent tears fall as he stared at the midnight black ceiling. Once he had wiped away his tears, he ran into the woods towards bunker 9. As Nico had expected, Leo Valdez was the only person in there.

"You been crying Di Angelo?" Leo asked when he looked up from his work.

Damn puffy red eyes that never go away after you've been crying. "No"

"Then why are your eyes so red?" Leo was one curious son of Hephaestus. And Nico was not going to be able to get Leo's help without answering all the questions the older teen asked.

"Fine, yes I have been crying"

Nico told him everything. How he and Bianca were from the 1930's. How his mother had been murdered by Zeus. How His father had wiped their memories. How they had been taken out of time for sixty years. How he and his sister were rescued from the manticore by Percy, Annabeth, Thalia and the Hunters of Artemis. How she had left him to join the Hunters. How she had stolen the Hades figurine for him and awoken the automation that Leo's dad had built. How Percy had come up with a plan to kill it. How Bianca had stolen that plan. How she...How she died. How he had tried to save her. And finally her choice to be reborn.

Leo was a good listener. Which surprised Nico since usually he couldn't shut up. But he listened to Nico's story without inturupting once. When it became clear to him that Nico had finnished, Leo offered to help.

Finally, Nico could ask what he needed to ask. "Could you set fire to my bin?"

Leo stared at Nico as though he was confused about how setting fire to the bin in cabin 13 would solve any of Nico's problems. After a few minutes of this Nico decded to explain.

"I don't want anything to do with my sisters decision to be reborn and the letter she wrote is in my bin. Chiron doesn't let us have any matches so the only way I can start this fire is you."

Leo reluctantly agreed to set the fire for him. And the two of them headed down to cabin 13.

Once Leo had left and Nico's bin was on fire the son of Hades sat and stared at the flames without feeling. His sister had chosen to forget him so he would choose to forget his sister.


	2. Chapter 2

Bianca. Her name kept rolling around in his head. He would never be able to forget her. The only person he had been able to rely on for most of his life, or at least, all he could remember of his life. No, he would never be able to forget her.

Her words suddenly rang in his head though he couldn't remember when she had said them; "when you fall down, you can rely on your friends to pick you up. You are never alone mio caro."

Who cold Nico talk to? Hazel always felt uncomfortable when he talked about Bianca. Besides, she and Frank were both at camp Jupiter right now. Percy? Not an option, he always felt awkward talking to the son of Poseidon now that he knew of Nico's secret crush on him. Annabeth hated him so she was out. Piper was cool but Nico didn't have much in common with the daughter of the love goddess. Leo had done enough just by setting fire to his bin, so that left Jason and Will. Will was a nice guy and Nico liked him but the son of Apollo didn't know him like Jason did. So Jason it is then he thought to himself.

Nico picked himself off the floor of the Hades cabin and wiped away his tears for the second time that day. It wouldn't do to have his best friend see him cry. He headed for cabin One only to find it void of all signs of life. There were cobwebs netting around the giant statue of Zeus, Jason's father, and dust lining the windows and doors. Jason Grace had not been here in a long time. Nico checked for any signs of death. Being the son of Hades, he could instinctively tell if he was standing where someone had died, but no-one had died in here since before Nico was born.

Okay, Nico thought to himself, Jason might still be alive. He breathed a sigh of relief and told himself to check with Chiron. For all he kenew Jason was at camp Jupiter.

"Jason Grace? Nico I don't have time for your jokes right now, there has never been a Jason Grace at this camp."

Piper's answer to Nico's questions about Jason's whereabouts were much the same. "Nico, I don't have a boyfriend, I'm the ugly daughter of Aphrodite. Who would want me? Besides, the big three made a pact not to have any demigod children, the only times that pact has been broken was with Percy and you.

"What about Thalia?"

"Nico, You're just making up names now."

The only demigod he could get to believe him was Percy; "Look Nico, I have absolutely no idea who these Grace people are, but if you say they exist then I believe you. So what do you want to do?"

"Find them."

Nico and Percy had already packed their bags to search for Jason and Thalia, even though Percy still had no idea who they were, and were ready to leave camp halfblood at first light the next morning.

That night Nico dreamed of the Grace siblings...and his sister. Jason and Thalia were tied down in the underworlds dungeons and Bianca was there.

"I need a body" his sister was saying

"well your not having mine" Jason and Thalia said in unison.

"Listen, Thalia," his sister chose to address the huntress because she knew Thalia better than Jason. "I want to be able to keep an eye on my little brother in the next life. But, I also want the new family I found with the hunters, and yours is the only body that will give me that. Please Thalia, switch places with me."

"Never!" Nico had to hand it to her, Thalia had courage. Even with his dead sister pointing an arrow between her eyes, the daughter of Zeus was still almost as stubborn as him.

Nico turned his attention to Jason while his sister was busy with Thalia. The younger of the Grace siblings had taken advantage of Bianca being preoccupied and had managed to cut his way out with a credit card. Bianca must have disarmed them. Of course she had, Jason was cutting himself free with a credit card and he couldn't see Thalia's backpack which doubled as her bow and quiver, or her bracelet which doubled as her shield, Aegis.

Nico had to get them out.

"I know where they are," Nico told Percy when the met up outside of camp. "But you're not going to like it."

Nico told Percy about his dream of Bianca wanting one of the Grace siblings' body.

"The underworld. I am so sick of that place. Well, lets go rescue two mystery demigods from your psycho sister."


	3. Chapter 3

Nico and Percy shadow travelled to the door of Orpheus in central Park with Percy's satyr friend, Grover, to open the door for them. Once it was open, Grover went back to camp halfblood to enjoy his life of leisure as one of the Council of Cloven Elders and Percy and Nico desended into the underworld.

Before they had even reached the fields of Asphodel, Nico's mind had already run through every bad possibility he could and destroyed them. He was just thinking about how he would find Jason and Thalia if Bianca had seen him and moved, but he dismissed the possibility. Bianca had died before she developed the ability to see spirit walkers, and Nico knew for a fact that demigod powers are frozen in their development stage after the halfblood dies. Nico was so lost in thought that he almost missed the hellhound attack if Percy hadn't yelled at him to focus. Nico sliced the monster to pieces before he could become a Nico Di Angelo chew toy.

Nico scolded himself for not paying attention to the task at hand - getting Jason and Thalia back and stopping his sister and resorted to pay more attention next time. The two demigods continued their trek through Asphodel towards his fathers palace and their destination. Nico had already calculated that Jason and Thalia had a maximum of three days left to live before they ran out of oxygen, but it was likely to be less, and, knowing his luck, it probably was.

It was Percy who called for a break first, though it was most likely for Nico's sake. The son of Hades was exhausted after shadow traveling the three of them to the door of Orpheus and hiking through the underworld all day and almost being killed by a hellhound. Nico fell asleep almost immediately leaving Percy to keep guard.

In his dreams Nico saw Thalia, Bianca and Jason. Clearly Bianca had noticed Jasons escape attempt. And the son of Zeus had taken a beating. His eye was black and his nose was bleeding. His arm was bent at an odd angle and was definitely broken. As well as this, his body was covered in cuts and bruises. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that he could see that Thalia and Jason were already struggling to breathe, he had even less time than he thought. Of course.

As he watched, Bianca spoke with Thalia. "If you don't give me your body, I will harm your precious little brother even more."

Thalia, stubborn as ever, replied. "You have no right to say the words 'precious little brother' after the way you treated yours. Nico is an amazing kid and you can't realize that, instead you act overprotective of a boy who does not need protecting by kidnapping me and my brother and forcing me to switch places with you so you can go back and surprise him and think he will forget how you abandoned him."

Bianca replied to Thalia's outburst by slapping Jason accross the face, creating a new hand print over the one that was already there. Despite Jason's best efforts at hiding the pain, Nico could see that it hurt...bad. Thalia could see it to. "I'm so sorry Jason, but there is no way I'm going to let this bitch take my place."

Nico could see it in Jason's eyes. The older teen wanted to reply, to tell his sister that he was okay and didn't blame her for any of this, but he didn't trust his voice not to betray his pain. Instead he trusted his eyes to convey the message to her.

Nico woke up in a cold sweat. "we have less time than we thought" he told Percy in an urgent tone. He explained what he had seen the previous night and the two boys took off running towards Hades's palace, killing any monster that got in their way. They reached the home of his father by midday, or at least Nico thought it was midday, time was different in the underworld.

They didn't slow down as they reached the dungeons. Being Hades's son meant that he could go anywhere in the underworld, except Tartatus, without being questioned, and because he was with Nico, Percy got a free pass too. Nico led them to the only cell that was in use to find Bianca holding a knife to Jason's throught and Thalia giving his sister the evils.


	4. Chapter 4

"I can explain," Bianca told him.

"You don't need to," Nico replied. Percy entered the room at that point and stared at Jason and Thalia like he recognized their faces but couldn't place them with a memory or a name. Then he noticed Nico and Bianca and decided it would be best to leave the sibling rivalry to them and get to work on releasing Jason and Thalia.

"I know that you chose to be reborn," Nico continued. "I know that being a daughter of Hades gives you certain privileges with this, like being able to choose a new body to posess. I know you want that body to be Thalias. I know you were willing to torture one of my best friends to get what you want. And I know that I am not going to let you do that. Bianca, you don't belong in the land of the living anymore, you've been dead for five years."

"Nico, I need to know that you are safe in this crazy world that we live in, and how can I do that unless I'm living in that world with you?"

"You tell me! You're the one that left me alone in that world when I was 12 years old Bianca."

"Nico..."

"Don't 'Nico' me, just let me take my friends home and I swear on the River Styx that I will stay safe in this crazy world I live in."

"Nico, I can't do that."

"Yes you can. Leave here and go back to Elysium Bianca and make sure I never see you again, you are a disgrace to the Di Angelo name."

"Okay, You're right, I took this too far." When Bianca reached the door, she turned towards her little brother "And Nico...?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry, I love you and I never meant to cause you any pain, can you forgive me?" The look in Bianca's eyes told him that she meant it, she was sorry. And he knew that one day, he would forgive her, but it wouldn't be today. His sister left before he got the chance to answer her and Nico was left with two recently freed demigods and Percy Jackson.

The three demigods and the huntress left the Dungeons with Percy and Thalia carrying Jason between them and Nico led the way acting as a guard whenever something unpleasant came at them and slowly they made their way to the door of Orpheus.

Thalia made the three boys swear on the Styx that they would never tell anyone she could sing after the door had opened on the third note and they unwillingly obliged.

Once they had left the underworld Percy revealed that he remembered the Grace siblings now. Nico explained that the reasoning for that was that it was Biancas powers which blocked his memories of Jason and Thalia and her powers were only effective in the underworld. So now that the Grace siblings were out of the underworld, peoples memories of them were no longer blocked.


	5. Epilogue

Piper thought about her conversation with Nico; 'I don't have a boyfriend' she had said. But now that she thought about it, she remembered a tall blonde boy with blue eyes holding her hand as they watched a meteor shower from the roof of cabin one. Jason. Nico had mentioned the name Jason Grace to her and the more she thought about it, the more she wanted that memory to be real not a trick of the mist like so many of her other memories of Jason.

"Hey beauty Queen"

She already knew who the words came from, but just to be sure she turned around, And sure enough, Jason Grace was standing behind her. But he was wounded, He had a black eye and his nose was bleeding, his arms and legs were covered in scars and bruises but he was alive and he existed, and, for now at least, that was good enough for her.

"Did you miss me?" He asked as if they had seen each other only yesterday.

Yes, gods yes." Piper answered as she threw her body into his arms and felt them wrap protectively around her.


End file.
